


he must fall before he flies

by andthentheybow



Series: icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called mythology [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Mythology References, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), as one comment on the last one said, implied/referenced suicidal ideation, no beta we die like stupid block men, the greeks knew the score, they knew we would compare sbi to mythology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: techno thinks he is theseus. you already know that story.in reality tommy is icarus, doomed to fall. if he’s going to go down, he’s going to go down laughing.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Dave | Technoblade & TommyInnit, Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Series: icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called mythology [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057166
Comments: 61
Kudos: 551





	he must fall before he flies

**Author's Note:**

> don't be creepy about content creators, this is my interpretation of their personas, if they're uncomfortable it'll be taken down, etc etc

he is falling and he is flying and his wings are bent and broken and he lands in the water at the last second and ponders aloud why he is doing this.

techno thinks that tommy is theseus. techno has this  _ thing _ where he compares the members of their family to the myths that he loves, he’s always had this thing, it’s just part of who he is. it’s like how wilbur makes funny songs that are actually good and tommy makes bad jokes that still make people laugh. it’s just part of them.

and techno- techno usually isn’t wrong. techno is usually so, so right that it hurts. tommy heard the sisyphus bit that techno told wilbur and it was so, so right. tommy’s heard techno compare dream to zeus, punishing those he deems fit, taking what he wants without bothering to think of the consequences. he’s heard techno compare schlatt to cassiopeia, thinking he’s above the gods themselves and proudly shouting it. he’s heard techno compare himself to everything from ares to persephone to demeter.

well, the demeter bit was mostly a joke. goddess of the harvest, all that. blood for the blood god, and potatoes for his throne.

tommy doesn’t really  _ do _ comparisons. they’re not really his  _ thing _ , not like techno or even wilbur with his lyrics. tommy deals in bluntness and absolutes, facts and hopes and dreams and things that are solidly, truly their own. he doesn’t like to think of himself as some hero of the past, because the past is far behind them. he is a hero of the now.

but hearing techno compare him to theseus- well, even if he didn’t outright say it, he was right again, wasn’t he? it was the boldest bit of foreshadowing that tommy’s ever seen, just another thing tacked on to the list of reasons that his brother might be a real, actual god.

because here tommy is. founder of one of the greatest places in the world- l’manberg is his athens, his melody- exiled by the people, and all that.

but before theseus was exiled, he killed the minotaur. who’s the minotaur here, tommy wonders? schlatt? schlatt killed himself with poor life choices before any of the rest of them could do him in. and maybe, tommy thinks, as he pulls himself out of the water and looks at his destroyed base, maybe for the first time techno was wrong.

and tommy looks up at the tower that he made and jumped off of and survived because fuck, it’s not his time yet, there’s still so much left to do, and he thinks.

he’s not theseus. maybe he’s icarus. maybe he’s doomed to fly too close to the sun, go crashing down to the waves below. maybe he’s meant to get cocky and think that he’ll be able to go higher, higher, higher, once he’s given a little bit of freedom.

but here’s the thing about icarus- zeus, god of the sky, let him fall. apollo, god of the sun, watched it happen. poseidon, god of the sea, let him drown. daedalus, the father of icarus, the creator of the wings, could do nothing.

and yeah, tommy thinks, he’s pretty fucking sure he’s icarus. maybe dream is the midas in this situation, locking tommy into a place where there is no escape, be exiled or see his athens crumble to dust under the weight of heavy obsidian walls. it’s not really phil’s fault, per say, but tommy’s just working with what he has.

phil, with his great grey wings and all the powers of a thousand suns riding behind his eyes, the green-striped bucket hat that tommy told him was fucking stupid when he was twelve years old, could do nothing as he fell. where was he? where was his father?

maybe his fall started before phil got here. maybe his fall started a long time ago. a time when phil was off in one of his hardcore worlds, doing his thing, because he told his sons that he’d come when they needed him and when they needed him wasn’t until they were all on the verge of death. techno needed phil to come with him. tommy needed phil to save him. and wilbur needed phil to kill him.

phil’s done two of those things, tommy guesses, but icarus is still falling.

poseidon- poseidon is wilbur. ghostbur. whatever. poseidon is wilbur, watching, able to act but not really. icarus would’ve been dead on impact, tommy knows that, if you fall from the sun to the ocean the surface tension of the water will kill you. the tension that runs beneath the very land that he built his melody upon is enough to kill him, l’manberg crying out  _ stay _ even as the rest of the world cries  _ go _ . wilbur can’t really do anything, not really, not when he’s nothing more than a ghost haunting tommy’s every move.

zeus- zeus is technoblade. because zeus  _ could _ act, but he did nothing. techno could be there, techno could stop him from falling, techno could help him fly, and he-

_ doesn’t. _

apollo. apollo that icarus was flying toward, that bright brilliant sun. but it wasn’t apollo, was it, it was the titan helios, who rode the sun’s chariot across the sky and eventually faded into nothing more than a memory. apollo took over, the brighter face, the louder voice. president tubbo is apollo. tubbo is helios.

president tubbo is the louder one, the voice of the sun that does nothing as icarus climbs higher and higher, attempting to reach him, wings melting before he gets close enough. president tubbo is the one that exiled him, the one that sentenced his best friend to loneliness, the one who melted his brother’s wings.

tubbo is the quieter one, the one that didn’t want to exile tommy, the one that holds a compass pointing toward his best friend in one hand at all times, the one who cries out for his brother to flap his wax-molten feathers harder.

tommy is proud of himself for remembering so much about the myths. he didn’t think he’d be able to. maybe comparisons are his thing, just a little bit.

that’s everyone else. and then there’s him.

he is icarus. right.

he is icarus, and he is going to fall before he flies. he is going to jump off that tower and he is going to hit the water and zeus and poseidon and apollo and helios and daedalus are all going to be watching, they are going to be watching as he hits the water and  _ lives _ .

he is icarus, and he is going to fall before he flies. he is going to stand over lava and let the god whisper in his ears that it is not his time, and it is never his time, because he will fall over and over and over again until all he knows is the weightlessness beneath is body and the rush of wind in his ears.

he is icarus, and he is going to fall before he flies. one day he is going to jump and he is going to soar, and he is not going to fall, he is going to fly higher and higher on wings that don’t melt and he will reach the sun and helios will embrace him and maybe then zeus will notice him, maybe then poseidon will be able to help, maybe then daedalus will reach him in time.

he is icarus, and he is going to fall before he flies, and when he goes down, he will go down laughing. because he will go down with the wind in his hair, not with the sizzling of lava. he will go down with hope in his heart, pulling him higher, closer to the sun, higher, higher, up the tower and higher, one more flap of the wings, and then-

_ nothing _ .

  
  
  
  


but not yet.

it’s not his time yet.

that’s why he’s doing this.

he hits the water and he loops it back to the beginning, why he’s doing this, why he hits the water instead of the ground.

tommy deals with truths, not comparisons to the past. he deals with the now, not the then. because unlike icarus, he  _ survived _ . he’s survived it all.

so he’s going to try flying again. and again. and again. and one day, sure, maybe he’ll hit the ground too hard. but until then, he’s going to keep trying. and if he’s going to fall, he’s going to laugh as he does.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/etc make my day!!! come yell at me on twitter/tumblr if you want @andthentheybow


End file.
